Brig (r) Shuakat Qadir does a hack job on Mansoor Ijaz going all out in defending the Army, Haqqani & also Zardari. With so much already being piled up against Mansoor Ijaz [Text of Mansoor Ijaz rejoinder] I’m glad this mud-slinging fest has emerged, thats the beauty of media, it exposes liars and lottas

Something smells funny, I’d just like to know the exact text of Zardari’s memo to Adm Mullen & US…. im ready to bet Zardari would have have easily rattled against the Army to save his own ass LINK

In the past few days I and perhaps many of you have felt exactly the same as we felt 40 years ago in December 1971, when Gen Niazi surrendered to the Indian Army. Some of you were not even born, so lucky you, but most of this group had to face such a humiliation for the second time. But this the beginning of the end. The way things are going, very soon we will face yet another humiliation when the Nucs are taken away by shadowy figures in a dark night.

People in the PAF Air Defence command claim that they had no coverage on the Western sector. My question to them; This Nation is not blaming you for not detecting the incoming attack, what we blame you for is WHY WERE THE SEALS PERMITTED TO LEAVE ? Why not a single bullet was fired? For which sufficient warning was available. Some people say that 2 PAF F-16s were airborne but they were not allowed to engage. If that is the case then come out and inform the Nation. What are you afraid of?

The next question is that why do they claim that our nuclear assets are well guarded. In fact they even have the tenacity to claim this today. If such corridors exist, then how are the Nukes safe? We all know that the enemy will never come from the route where you are well prepared. It is a very basic issue but perhaps the brains of the defenders are clouded with Estate & Plot managements.Continue reading “Save the Nukes” »

Beset by devastating floods, increased terror attacks, and political instability, Pakistan’s precarious state is a matter of global concern. “Crisis Guide: Pakistan,” the Council on Foreign Relations‘ (CFR) new interactive multimedia feature, examines the roots of the country’s challenges. The interactive presentation includes video interviews with more than twenty-five leading analysts, government officials, and journalists from Pakistan, India, and the United States.

This past week, I was stuck in Yasin Valley in Gizar District (a district next to Gilgit District) for a project and I had to trek and walk by way back to Gilgit City, which took about four days. Despite the trip being extremely scary and dangerous at times, I was glad I was there as it gave me a chance to see the situation up close. The situation in Gizar was extremely dire. I saw hundreds of houses submerged in water. Animals dead, trees fallen. Most of the bridges and the roads have been completely destroyed in the area. In the moderately affected areas of gilgit district, the water ways have over filled and caused ‘selabs’ in peoples fields and homes. Tent cities have gone up in Gupis Valley in the Gizar District. There was no army or military or government presence in any of these areas. Perhaps because Swat, Charsadda, Mardan etc have been reported to the most affected of all areas.

I reached on Gilgit city on Friday last week, I was told there was an emergency plane being flown out of Gilgit to Pindi to transport stranded families. As I got to the airport, I saw a C-130 airforce plane. As people (mostly civilians) who had managed to somehow get into the airpost past the airforce officials, rushed to the plane, we were told that the plane was full and that we should wait for 2 hours for another plane which was most likely goingto show up.Continue reading “Army Selective in Rescuing Flood Victims” »

On Saturday April 10, the Pakistani army bombed villages in Tirah in the Khyber Agency and killed more than 70 civilians. While the military denied the incident, local government confirmed compensation payments for civilian deaths and injuries. “All of those killed were civilians, 100% innocent,” said Ikramullah Jan Kukikhel, a tribal elder. He further elaborates that a house with women, children and elderly was bombed and as villagers rushed to rescue those caught in the rubble, they were also attacked, killing many more.

Given the lack of transparency surrounding the many operations it is safe to say this is not the first time civilians have been killed by the army. The media has, in some cases, been strong-armed into publishing only ISPR approved stories, while independent news from the conflict regions has been systematically suppressed. Civilian deaths and army’s conduct are not reported or questioned in the mainstream media at all. Stories criticizing the army are virtually non-existent because the army does not permit them. After the bombing in Tirah, a BBC reporter was not allowed access to the wounded brought to Peshawar’s Hayatabad Hospital.

Almost a year back the political circus in Pakistan was up in arms at having watched a video of woman being flogged publicly. The video was released after verification by some human rights activists. Only recently The News carried a report claiming that this video was a fabrication and alleging that it was funded by an Islamabad based NGO which tried to implicate Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as the perpetrators of this women’s abuse

The News 29th March 2010: A resident of Swat, who claims to have prepared the fake video of flogging of a girl in Swat, has termed it drama and revealed that he received Rs 0.5 million for doing so before the launch of military operation ‘Rah-e-Rast’.

Umar Cheema reports in The News of an incident in Islamabad where a retired brigadier, the registrar of the Army-run National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Brig (retd) Obaidullah Ranjh assaulted his respected professor colleague, Prof Tahir Malik, when the latter questioned the role of General Musharraf in brokering a deal with the PPP through the NRO. The assault was so ravish the the brigadier started hitting the professor like a punching bag, leaving the latter virtually unconscious. After the incident, instead of regretting his act, said he wouldn’t care in case an FIR was lodged and defended the use of muscle power, saying: “If somebody disgraces the Army and its institution, what should I have done?” and asked the media to write whatever they wanted, adding: “I’m not answerable to you.” HIS ACTIONS ARE UTTERLY OUTRAGEOUS AND MUST BE CONDEMNED | UPDATE: The News Update on Feb 06 > Presidency orders probe as brigadier blocks FIR

Look at this picture, this is a child labeled as IDP (internally displaced person) living currently in a make shift camp without proper basic living conditions e.g. food, water, sanitation. He doesn’t have fear in his eyes, even though it could well be that his family died during air raids by his own country’s air force or shelling by army tanks of his nation’s army or if spared by all that then by a drone attack of our biggest ally or may be they survived but this kid still must have seen a lot of carnage and so would have all the other kids of his age around him. We are fighting this war for a some time now and it seems to be in the pipeline for a few more so we are talking about a whole generation being raised in such conditions with atrocities being committed all around them. To me it seems like we are running a Taliban production center ourselves or at least the final product is quite ready to be installed with radicalism or Islamic fundamentalist ideas. But even putting that aside for a moment this does raise some questions, the answers to which all of us don’t know but have every right to demand from god knows who. May be even god wouldn’t know since he sure would be keeping his distance from all this utter stupidity going on in our land; after all that’s also politically correct.

Coming back to the questions that are very basic;

What is the prize we are after? What are we fighting for, and whatever the desired end is does it justify the means?

Who are we fighting against? Are we waging a war on our own people to make our country a safer place, that is perplexing and an oxymoron in itself. Who is the enemy, is it an army of people and how many people do we have to kill before we conquer whatever we want to conquer or is it an ideology that we want to tear down through a military solution.

Who is our leader in this war? The one person who will stand up and say this is where we are and this is where we want to be as a nation and that is why this is a war of necessity, a struggle for survival and people of this nation could follow suit of the leader.

The People’s Resistance strongly condemns the Army brutality captured on video recently as illegal and despicable behaviour on the basis of violation of the understanding of our human rights and our laws.

In no sense can this strong condemnation be understood as support of the Taliban. Lets not fail to remind ourselves what else the fight was about besides army action. The fight was against violent intolerance and deluded religious bigotry. It was also long overdue. We are glad it happened. This behaviour, and that not shown in the video, is intolerable and will undoubtedly help in making a Taliban comeback.Continue reading “Peoples Resistance: Protest against Army Brutality” »

Cyril Almedia is one level headed analyst who I take very seriously, his regular friday columns are a must read to get a decent idea of how the pulse beats within Pakistan’s political circus. This Fridays column for Dawn is a must read where Cyril analyses the various options that could possibly take Zardari out

The judicial option? NRO or no NRO, the fact is Zardari hasn’t been convicted of anything yet and as president has immunity in fresh criminal cases …… Perhaps later, once Zardari is out of his office, they [CJ Iftikhar and his team of non-PCO judges] will get their chance — but that doesn’t really help the minus-one brigade right now.

An exclusive Al Jazeera survey of public opinion in Pakistan has revealed widespread disenchantment with the United States for interfering with what most people consider internal Pakistani affairs. This survey was done interviewing more than 2,500 men and women across the rural and urban areas in all four provinces of Pakistan on July 26 and 27. The margin of error is + 2-3 per cent at 95 per cent confidence level. Al-Jazeera wraps up the results in a detailed analysis but a quick look at the survey is as follows

On Dialog vs Offensive: 41% felt the need for Military Action, 43% wanted a Dialogue while 16% did not have an opinion

On President Zardari: 11% felt he was Good, while a majority of 42% considered him Bad, 34% responded as Neither Good or Bad leaving the remaining 13% as undecided

On Pakistan Peoples Party: 20% felt it was Good, 38% responded that PPP was Bad, 30% said it was Neither good or Bad while the remaining 12% did not know.

On their choice of the Best Leader for Pakistan: President Zardari came at measly 9%, Prime Minister Gilani at 13%, Nawaz Sharif at 38%, 8% favored a Military Government, while 11% felt a joint PPP and PML-N govt was good, only 6% felt Religious Parties were beneficial for Pakistan, 6% of the respondents chose other leaders leaving the last 8% of undecided

Recently Mr Ali Anan Qamar, an Assistant Coordination Officer and in-charge of Sheikh Yasin camp was beaten up and publicly humiliated by two officers of Pakistan Army, Maj. Asad Jamal and Lt. Haider marwat of 32nd Cavalry on 8th July 2009. Mr Qamar is a very well educated official of the government and we fear that if such treatment is meted out to high officials of the civil bureaucracy what may be happening to those who are the poor and illiterate in society and who cannot even raise their voices.

“Only in the desperate days and weeks after those celebrations of mid-August did the horrors of Partition’s impact begin to emerge. No viceregal time had been wasted in planning for the feeding and housing and medical needs of ten million refugees. No British officers or troops remained to keep the peace in shattered Punjab, or in Bengal, nor in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, left in deadly limbo to become the source of increasingly violent conflicts between India and Pakistan, the cause of three wars to be waged between them over the next fifty-five years.” – Stanley Wolpert, Shameful Flight.

There are many similarities in the events of yesteryear and today. The difference is that the British had an escape route, we dont !

The images of displacement of a million people this week horrifies me to think of its repercussions. While the government’s rhetoric is of a united counter insurgency attack which requires support of all stakeholders (political parties, public and foreign countries) involved, I fail to see any real strategy laid out by those in charge. Again, today’s speech by the PM in the National Assembly was demoralizing to say the least, apparently, the PM has no backup plan if things go wrong. The point that strengthening the armed forces and utilizing foreign aid on the military offensive will bring success is a narrowly viewed idea.Continue reading “Shameful Flight – Redux” »

The Saudi Prince genius has figured it all out – by himself! So now that it is out, no harm in sharing the insight with the unwashed millions.

It is not Islam, nationalism, pride, identity, brotherhood and other fringe intangibles that keeps this half of Pakistan intact. It is Da Bomb!

The successors to the Raj, and her satellite cohorts would like to get their hands on the Da Bomb. You must be familiar with the arguments floated: we need to keep it from falling in the hands of the big beards. This killer machine, dubbed the Muslim Bomb would wreak havoc as indiscriminately as the Christian, Communist, Jewish or Hindu bombs. Bu that is a digression.

The Army that has a country – yeah a stale joke – but valid to make the point – knows an insurance policy when it sees it.